Biography English Language

This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.

In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, The Whole Language shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. When Saul was thirteen years old, he killed his abusive stepfather in self-defense; after spending twenty-three years in juvenile and adult jail, he enters the Homeboy Industries training and healing programs and embraces their mission.

Of all the Catholic Church’s great saints, few are as venerated as Saint Francis of Assisi. The founder of one of the largest religious orders in the Catholic Church today, his is a story that captivates the faithful and historians alike. This biographical work is a window into that incredible tale. Author Nick Pascoe unspools the remarkable story of the saint and his Franciscan Order with captivating prose and thorough historical research. Delve into the history of Saint Francis in The Canticle of the Sun: The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi and the Birth of the Franciscan Order by Nick ...

Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio — even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars.

In one decisive moment, Cameron Townsend understood that God had called him to translate the Bible into the language of his Guatemalan friends. For Cam, the obstacles were small when compared to the growing reward of helping the diverse people of Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru read God's life-changing Word for themselves. Quick on his feet and slow to give up, Cam started Wycliffe Bible Translators with the dream of making the Good News available in every language. Since 1942, Wycliffe has translated Scripture into hundreds of languages, spreading God's Word to people all over the world.

Christie Watson spent 20 years as a nurse, and in this intimate, poignant, and remarkably powerful audiobook, she opens the doors of the hospital and shares its secrets. She takes us by her side down hospital corridors to visit the wards and meet her unforgettable patients. In the neonatal unit, premature babies fight for their lives, hovering at the very edge of survival, like tiny Emmanuel, wrapped up in a sandwich bag. On the cancer wards, the nurses administer chemotherapy and, long after the medicine stops working, something more important.

NORTHWARD BOUND is the entertaining and enlightening account of one English couple’s relocation from the overdeveloped south of Spain to the lush green hills of Asturias. After two years of endless blue skies on the Costa de Sol, Alison and Matthew Stewart decide that in their mid-sixties they aren’t too old to embrace a new challenge. After securing their house and loading up their trusty Berlingo, they head north with no fixed destination in mind, just a strong desire to rekindle their interest in the Spanish language and culture which has flagged so badly in the south. Eager to ...

STRUGGLING IN SPAIN is the light-hearted account of a young Englishman’s eventful new life in Spain. A feeling of restlessness drives Chris Dexter to accept a dubious teaching post in the small Valencian town of Canals, and despite the crummy school and its maverick owner, Marcelo, he’s determined to make the best of it. In the meantime he befriends a congenial but peculiar lawyer called Pablo and through him his social life begins to expand. At work, however, things go even less smoothly than expected and he soon has to use his wits to avoid a premature return to his family home in ...

Flake, the legendary keyboardist for the German band Rammstein, takes listeners on a journey of what it is to be a touring musician. The excitement, the boredom, the moments that will be remembered and those that are forgotten. It's the World's Birthday Today is a strange and moody book about life on the road.

Salman Rushdie is celebrated as “a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker), illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time.

When a young British couple, Karen and Nick first took a holiday in the Algarve in Portugal, little did they know that 35 years on they would find themselves permanent residents and much-loved members of the local community, well-known for rescuing and housing stray animals, working alongside the local vet and even helping the local fire brigade! This eagerly awaited sequel to Karen’s acclaimed and hugely popular first book “Another Day in Paradise” continues the story of life in the Algarve, its miracles and challenges as Karen lives with the aftermath of a spinal operation, gets ...

Offering a nuanced and transformative take on immigration, multiculturalism, and America's role on the global stage, The Newcomers follows and reflects on the lives of 22 immigrant teenagers throughout the course of their 2015-2016 school year at Denver's South High School. Unfamiliar with American culture or the English language, the students range from the ages of 14 to 19 and come from nations struggling with drought, famine, or war.

These were among the questions that philosophers wrestled with in mid-twentieth-century Britain, a period shadowed by war and the rise of fascism. In response to these events, thinkers such as Philippa Foot (originator of the famous trolley problem), Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Gilbert Ryle, and J. L. Austin aspired to a new level of watchfulness and self-awareness about language as a way of keeping philosophy true to everyday experience.

Filled with practical tips and helpful advice, Dear Ally is a treasure for aspiring writers at any stage of their careers. It offers a behind-the-scenes look at how books get made, from idea to publication, and gives you insight into the writing processes of some of the biggest and most talented YA authors writing today.

Born White in the heart of Zululand during the racial apartheid, Lisa-Jo Baker longed to write a new future for her children—a longing that set her on a journey to understand where she fit into a story of violence and faith, history and race. Before marriage and motherhood, she came to the United States to study to become a human rights advocate. When she naïvely walked right into America’s own turbulent racial landscape, Baker experienced the kind of painful awakening that is both individual and universal, personal and social.

At once a beautifully poetic memoir and an exploration of the various ways we live in the world, A Language Older Than Words explains violence as a pathology that touches every aspect of our lives and indeed affects all aspects of life on Earth. This chronicle of a young man's drive to transcend domestic abuse offers a challenging look at our worldwide sense of community and how we can make things better.

Calvin Trillin has reported serious pieces across America for The New Yorker, covered the civil rights movement in the South for Time, and written comic verse for The Nation. But one of his favorite subjects over the years—a superb fit for his unique combination of reportage and humor—has been his own professional environment: the American press.

NORTHWARD BOUND is the entertaining and enlightening account of one English couple’s relocation from the overdeveloped south of Spain to the lush green hills of Asturias. In PART TWO of Alison’s story the valiant couple go on living with Remedios while their new house is being refurbished by a singular builder and his motley crew. Hoping to move in by the end of the year, a stirring series of events – one of them a huge surprise – means that the process goes less smoothly than they’d anticipated.

At her execution Mary, Queen of Scots wore red. Widely known as the colour of strength and passion, it was in fact worn by Mary as the Catholic symbol of martyrdom. In 16th-century Europe, women's voices were suppressed and silenced. Even for a queen like Mary, her prime duty was to bear sons. In an age when textiles expressed power, Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency.

Kierkegaard wasn't really a philosopher in the academic sense. Yet he produced what many people expect of philosophy. His subject was the individual and his or her existence, the "existing being." In Kierkegaard's view, this purely subjective entity lay beyond the reach of reason, logic, philosophical systems, theology, or even "the pretenses of psychology." Nonetheless, it was the source of all these subjects. The branch of philosophy to which Kierkegaard gave birth has come to be known as existentialism.